10 Big South Championships
9 NCAA Tournament Appearances
2013-14 Yearbook
Associate
Head Coach
Mark Prosser
Mark Prosser is in his
second season on staff with the
men’s basketball program and
was promoted to men’s basketball
associate head coach on Sept. 1,
2013.
Prosser is the son of the
late Skip Prosser who coached
Kelsey at Xavier and later served as his mentor at Wake
Forest, was the head coach at Brevard College this past year
following two different stints as an assistant coach at Wofford
College totaling four years and five years at Bucknell Univer-
sity.
At Wofford, the Terriers repeated as Southern Confer-
ence Champions in 2010-11 and reached the NCAA Tourna-
ment. The team was first in the SOCON in assists and also
first in assist/turnover margin on the way to a 21-13 record.
Wofford also was eighth in the nation in three-point percent-
age and twelfth in overall field goal percentage.
During his first season in Spartanburg in 2008, the Ter-
riers set a school record with twelve Southern Conference
wins. In addition, the team posted the first winning overall
record since moving to NCAA Division I.
In the 2009-2010 season, Prosser helped Wofford reach
a school-record 26 wins along with the Southern Conference
Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Working
primarily with the guards, Wofford was second in the confer-
ence in turnover margin and assist/turnover ratio, plus ranked
third in steals.
At Bucknell, the team averaged 20 wins a season while
Prosser was on the coaching staff of Pat Flannery. In the
2004-05 season, the Bison reached the NCAA Tournament
after going 23-10 and winning the Patriot League title. In the
tournament, Bucknell upset Kansas in the first round.
In 2005-06, the Bison went undefeated in Patriot League
play, the first team to do so in conference history. The team
was ranked in the top 25 for the first time in school history
and featured Patriot League Player of the Year Charles Lee.
For the NCAA Tournament, the Bison were seeded 9th and
defeated Arkansas in the first round. In the second round they
were defeated by Memphis to end the season at 27-5, the
best record in school history.
For the 2002-03 season, he served as an assistant
coach for the Terriers in Mike Young’s first season as head
coach. During that season, Wofford posted a 14-15 overall
record, including a 79-77 win at Virginia Tech. In the South-
ern Conference, the Terriers were 8-8 and advanced to the
quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
A native of Wheeling, WV, Prosser played collegiately
at Marist College before a knee injury ended his career. He
served as a student assistant coach until his graduation in
2002. He and his wife Emily are the parents of a daughter,
Ava Grayce.
assistant
Coach
Brian Thornton
Brian Thornton is in his second
season as an assistant coach with the
Eagles after serving as an assistant at
Furman the 2011-12 season.
Prior to his arrival at Furman,
Thornton spent two years as the direc-
tor of basketball operations at Xavier.
Before beginning his coaching career, Thornton was an outstand-
ing collegiate player, first at Vanderbilt (2001-2003) where he
earned a spot on the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman
team, and then at Xavier (2004-2006) where he was an All-Atlan-
tic 10 selection, a two-time Student-Athlete of the Year, and the
first player in Musketeer history to earn Academic All-American
honors.
Following his collegiate playing career, the Louisville, KY
native played professional basketball in Germany for one year
before returning to Xavier to serve as a volunteer coach while
completing work on a master’s degree in business administration.
He graduated cum laude with an undergraduate degree in liberal
arts with an emphasis in business in 2005 from Xavier and also
earned his MBA from XU in 2007.
During his time at Xavier, the program posted a 24-8 record,
claimed an Atlantic 10 Conference regular season title and
reached the NCAA Tournament in 2010-11. In his first season
on the Musketeers’ staff, Xavier fashioned a 26-9 record and
advanced to the NCAA’s Sweet Sixteen.
He played two seasons at Xavier under Sean Miller after
transferring from Vanderbilt University. He scored 1,175 points in
his collegiate career, including 611 for Xavier and 564 for Vander-
bilt. His two-year Musketeer career field goal percentage of 61.9
percent broke the XU career two-year record. Despite having his
Xavier senior year cut short after 21 games due to injury, Thorn-
ton earned a long list of postseason honors, including 2005-06
First Team All-Atlantic 10 Conference and NABC (National Asso-
ciation of Basketball Coaches) All-District 10 First Team. Thornton
led the team in scoring (15.3 ppg.), rebounding (6.8 rpg.), field
goal percentage (first in the Atlantic 10 and top 10 in the nation at
64.0 percent) and blocks (2.1 bpg.). XU finished that season at
21-11, won the Atlantic 10 Tournament and earned a spot in the
NCAA Tournament. Thornton averaged 10.7 ppg. and 5.8 rpg. as
a junior in the 2004-05 season as XU finished 17-12. Thornton
started 46 of his 48 games at Xavier.
Thornton played in 61 games in two seasons at Vanderbilt
under Kevin Stallings, including 40 starts. He averaged 7.2 ppg.
and 4.6 rpg. as a freshman in the 2001-02 season and earned
a spot on the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman Team as
he helped the Commodores advance to the second round of the
postseason NIT. He averaged 11.5 ppg. and 5.7 rpg. as a sopho-
more in the 2002-03 season. Prior to Vanderbilt, Thornton was an
All-State standout at Louisville’s DuPont Manual High School.
assistant
Coach
Marty McGillan
Marty McGillan is in his second stint with
the Eagles and as he returned as an assistant
basketball coach in June of 2013.
McGillan spent five years as assistant
coach on Randy Peele’s staff before heading to Georgia as an assistant coach
at Kennessaw State for the 2012-13 season.
In his 23 years of college coaching, McGillan has served on the staffs of
four schools that he has helped lead to six NCAA tournament appearances,
including two out of five years at Winthrop under Peele.
McGillan is a 1990 graduate of UNC Wilmington with a B.A. degree in
Parks and Recreation Management with a concentration in therapeutic recre-
ation. He began his coaching career in 1990-91 at USC-Salkehatchie before
moving on to his first Div. I job at East Carolina University in 1991-92 as an
assistant coach where he served for six years. He helped direct the 1992-93
Pirates to the Colonial Athletic Association championship and an appearance
in the NCAA Tournament.
He also had assistant coaching stops at Coastal Carolina (1996-97),
The Citadel (1997-2001), College of Charleston (2001-02), UNC Wilmington
(2002-2006), Wright State (2006-07) and Kennesaw State (11-12). While at
UNCW, he helped lead the Seahawks to the 2003 and 2005 Colonial Athletic
Association regular season and tournament championships and two NCAA
appearances. He helped lead Wright State to the 2007 Horizon League regular
season and tournament championships and the school’s first trip to the NCAA
tournament since 1993.
McGillan, a native of Silver Spring, MD, is married to the former Tee
Nagle. The couple has two sons, Riley, age 17, and Tate, age 15.
Coaching Staff
